Minnesota Timberwolves: David Kahn refutes trade rumors with Lakers

Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn refuted an ESPN.com report that the team had offered center Nikola Pekovic and forward Derrick Williams to the Los Angeles Lakers in trade discussions for all-star forward Pau Gasol. The report claimed the Lakers turned down the Wolves' offer.

"There's absolutely no truth that we've had any discussions with the Los Angeles Lakers," Kahn said after the Wolves' shootaround practice Friday, Dec. 7. "The last time we had any discussions with the Lakers was June of last summer. As you can expect, nobody from the outlet that reported the news called to get a confirmation or denial, but that's par for the course these days. I can assure you there's absolutely nothing imminent we're working on."

Kahn said he felt the need to refute the report to keep the matter from "spiraling even further" and to assure Pekovic and Williams that he was not shopping them in trade talks. Kahn said he planned to talk with Pekovic and Williams sometime Friday.

The ESPN.com report, citing sources, said the Lakers rejected trade offers for Gasol from the Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors. Kahn said he wasn't "upset" with the report, but "there does come a time when you start to see these things have a life of their own."

"I think it's important to say conclusively how untrue these reports are," Kahn said. "What bothers me is the impact it has on the team, the players and their family members. It's not appropriate for that reason.

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Kahn denied another report that claimed point guard Ricky Rubio, working his way back from major knee surgery, was planning to play in the Wolves' game Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Target Center. Rubio started practicing with the team on Dec. 2 but no timetable has been set for his return.

"There's absolutely no truth at all to that report," Kahn said. "It's false, erroneous and irresponsible."

Here's something that is true: Timberwolves forward Andrei Kirilenko, who has missed the past three games because of back spasms, said he will play Friday against Cleveland.